Shaping the Online Experience of Tomorrow with Interactive Content Marketing

Is boring the life out of people your ultimate ambition, your life’s calling? Then chances are your content sucks.

But if engaging audiences is the name of your game (and it should be!), there’s nothing more worthwhile than ensuring your content hits the mark, gets noticed, and provides value. It’s what we here at Joomag refer to as the “3 Commandments of Interactive Content Marketing.”

In the not-so-distant past, static websites brimmed over the digital marketing landscape. But things changed when content marketing entered the fray shortly thereafter. Fresh, targeted content began working its way into the online scene. Suddenly, marketers weren’t annoying people anymore. Instead, they were offering impactful online experiences tailored to individual users.

Today, digital-savvy brands are leveraging interactive content marketing to cut through the noise and deliver contextually relevant information to netizens around the world. But is it really the future we’ve all been waiting for? Let’s find out.

What is interactive content?

Quite simply, it’s content that requires users to actively engage with it and take some form of action. Unlike traditional content where users are largely shoehorned into passive roles, interactive content facilitates meaningful and dynamic two-way experiences.

Interactive content burst onto the scene more than a decade ago, and since then it’s become the de facto marketing standard for businesses around the world. A major reason why it’s so popular today is because it aligns with how customers look for, interact with, and consume content. Interactive content employs scannable text that’s accompanied by multimedia (videos, images, infographics) to keep viewers invested. And it’s effective; 88% of marketers say interactive content differentiates them from their competitors (source).

Key components of interactive content

Everyone loves interactive content (you’re weird if you don’t). But why? We’ll give you 4 good reasons:

1. It’s attention-grabbing

Interactive content takes many forms. That’s the beauty of it. Quizzes, surveys, infographics-- all are ostensibly different yet share a common underlying thread: they’re much more effective in grabbing readers’ attention than static content. Here’s the proof:

 

Via the Content Marketing Institute

2. It boosts reader engagement

Interactive content is highly explorative, meaning people aren’t just reading and watching it. Many social platforms enable users to embed videos, animations, and other interactive elements directly in their content. It’s a popular trend, and one marketers shouldn’t ignore.

3. It increases website traffic

Infographics, for example, are invaluable tools for attracting visitors to your website and keeping them there. Screenshot a portion of yours and entice visitors to explore it in more detail.

4. It improves conversion rates 

Different brands have different conversion goals, but nearly all want the same thing: to get users to take action on their websites, landing pages, or apps. Vertical Measures, a popular digital marketing agency in Arizona, helped one of its healthcare clients boost its conversion rate by 130%. How? By creating an interactive self-evaluation experience that put the user’s needs first -- a key tenet of content marketing.

Why interactive content is the future of content marketing

Technology has made great strides toward its goal of ameliorating the marketing process and empowering consumers along the way. Interactive content enables different communities to unite through the World Wide Web -- a communal platform where digital content is just as diverse as the people who create and share it.

Convenience is everything, and it’s also a big reason why interactive content marketing is thriving. Sifting through traditional forms of content can get mind-numbingly boring after a while. Digital serves up all the information you need with a single button click. It’s faster, more stimulating, and more inclusive.

Moreover, interactive experiences are measurable. Tracking analytics can be applied to any content journey, informing your marketing strategy and providing rich insights into content consumption patterns. Armed with this data, marketers can generate high-quality leads and ultimately drive more conversions.

More reasons why interactive content is a bonafide game changer:

• 88% of marketers said interactive content is somewhat or very effective at differentiating them from competitors, versus 55% for static content.

• 38% said interactive content is somewhat or very effective when it’s shared, versus 17% for static content.

• Interactive content generates conversions moderately or very well 70% of the time, compared to just 36% for passive content.

• 93% of marketers say interactive content is effective at educating buyers.*

*From Demand Metric’s Benchmark Study

Types of interactive content

• Quizzes and polls

• Surveys

• Contests

• White papers

• e-Books

• Online assessments and graders

• Galleries

• Videos

• Infographics

Joomag: interactive content creation and marketing platform

Marketers are cranking out better content, and more of it. Unfortunately, getting yours noticed won’t be a walk in the park anymore.

With Joomag, however, publishers can readily transform static marketing assets into fully interactive digital experiences and market them to the right people. Here’s how:

1. Create interactive magazines, catalogs, brochures, newspapers, presentations, portfolios, eBooks, newspapers, menus, documents, photo albums, and user manuals.
2. Embed interactive elements in each asset you create, including video, audio, slideshows, pop-ups, lead generation forms, hotspots, links, feedback plugins, and more.
3. Manage contacts and subscribers via Joomag’s built-in CRM system.
4. Embed content on personal or business websites, share it on all social media networks, optimize it for search engines, conduct mass mailing campaigns, and much more.

Further reading

With interactive content marketing bleeding into multiple industries and markets, we’ve taken the time to ensure our platform does it right. To date, Joomag has helped over 700,000 businesses fulfill their content marketing needs. How are companies using us to tell their stories and get customers more involved in the learning process? Read any of our white papers below! Also visit our dedicated landing page to know more about Joomag's content marketing capabilities!

 

 

 

 

FAQ

1. What is interactive content?

Interactive content requires users to actively engage with it, unlike passive content where users play a more passive role. Examples include quizzes, surveys, infographics, and videos, offering dynamic experiences.

2. Why is interactive content popular?

Interactive content grabs attention, boosts engagement, drives traffic, and improves conversion rates. Its diverse formats are more effective at retaining users' attention compared to static content.

3. Why is interactive content the future of marketing?

It offers convenience, inclusivity, and measurability. Marketers find it effective at differentiating from competitors, generating conversions, and educating buyers, making it a game-changer in content marketing.